Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week: Day Five. You have the Petrova fire.
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week timetable can be found here: LJ Tumblr.
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week, Day Five (Nov. 9) - Sexy Friday: in celebration of women’s (and Elena’s) sexuality, up the ante and make everything Elena-related as sexy and sex-oriented as you like!
Apparently Sexy Friday happens on Sunday now. Whatever. Embrace it.
This is the day I was really looking forward to, because I was planning on making a post about Elena and sexuality for a few weeks now, and somehow I never got around to actually doing it. But here it is now!
Warnings: This post is Damon/Elena-positive. I mean it. I'm open to discussion within reason, but please bear in mind that if you try to talk me out of the basic premise of my post, you won't succeed. I am determined to not host a flamewar here.
You have the Petrova fire
image source
Elena Gilbert is not sexually shy. We might be tempted to label her as a pastel-wearing vanilla girl juxtaposed to Katherine's hot femme fatale, but, surprisingly enough, the show never tried to build any contrast here. From s1 it's clear that Elena has sex, likes sex, initiates sex. Katherine might be portrayed as The Whore, but, on a purely sexual level, Elena never was The Virgin.
(And, to make it clear: I'm not trying to say there's something wrong with being a virgin or being sexually shy. I'm just saying that for Elena, within the premise of the narrative into which she's written, her being a virginal character introduced to sex by two predatory vamprie brothers would've been extremly problematic. So I'm glad there is no virgin in this particular story.)
I will never not love how Elena openly, unbashedly enjoys sex. I love how body-positive and playful she can be, how, even though she can find a reason to feel guilty about pretty much anything, she never feels guilty about liking sex. And you know what else I love? I love that Elena's story is not about discovering sexuality through transgression.
At some point (in s2, I was young an innocent), I fully expected that this is what Damon/Elena would be about: falling out of grace, getting hurt, getting burned, losing innocence. I mean, Damon is an abusive sex fiend, so it made sense that he would, idk, deprave Elena somehow. Well, I take it back now. Damon might represent unbashed sexuality within the narrative, but he isn't corrupting Elena... because, seriously, what's there to corrupt? It's safe to assume she lost her virginity at sixteen, at seventeen she jumped a murderous vampire's bones to persuade him to not leave her. Then she spent a year in a sexual relationship with said murderous vampire, and they:
- had sex in his house, where his vampire brother with super hearing could hear every sound;
- had sex in her house, and, apparently, were loud enough that her perfectly human aunt heard them from another room;
- had sex on a table and, as far as I recall, in her parents' bedroom (the lakehouse);
- had sex when Katherine was threatening to do some violence if they didn't break up.
Sexual self-discovery is an important part of Elena's journey. But this won't be a story of Elena temporarily transgressing into ~debauchery and then recovering morally. It will be a story of Elena discovering that what she wants matters, that her desire is valid, that she's allowed to jump Damon's bones without asking “What does it say about me?” first. There is no need to demonize Damon, because Damon's moral condition has nothing to do with Elena's desire. This isn't transgression, falling out of grace with a sexual predator. It's growth.
So, Elena Gilbert. She is sexually active, she has desires, she has sex with vampires, she cheats on her boyfriend, she wants to have fun. She won't tell you a story that associates morality with sexual conduct, she won't be your Madonna, she won't be your Whore.
Own it.
Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week, Day Five (Nov. 9) - Sexy Friday: in celebration of women’s (and Elena’s) sexuality, up the ante and make everything Elena-related as sexy and sex-oriented as you like!
Apparently Sexy Friday happens on Sunday now. Whatever. Embrace it.
This is the day I was really looking forward to, because I was planning on making a post about Elena and sexuality for a few weeks now, and somehow I never got around to actually doing it. But here it is now!
Warnings: This post is Damon/Elena-positive. I mean it. I'm open to discussion within reason, but please bear in mind that if you try to talk me out of the basic premise of my post, you won't succeed. I am determined to not host a flamewar here.
You have the Petrova fire
image source
Elena Gilbert is not sexually shy. We might be tempted to label her as a pastel-wearing vanilla girl juxtaposed to Katherine's hot femme fatale, but, surprisingly enough, the show never tried to build any contrast here. From s1 it's clear that Elena has sex, likes sex, initiates sex. Katherine might be portrayed as The Whore, but, on a purely sexual level, Elena never was The Virgin.
(And, to make it clear: I'm not trying to say there's something wrong with being a virgin or being sexually shy. I'm just saying that for Elena, within the premise of the narrative into which she's written, her being a virginal character introduced to sex by two predatory vamprie brothers would've been extremly problematic. So I'm glad there is no virgin in this particular story.)
I will never not love how Elena openly, unbashedly enjoys sex. I love how body-positive and playful she can be, how, even though she can find a reason to feel guilty about pretty much anything, she never feels guilty about liking sex. And you know what else I love? I love that Elena's story is not about discovering sexuality through transgression.
At some point (in s2, I was young an innocent), I fully expected that this is what Damon/Elena would be about: falling out of grace, getting hurt, getting burned, losing innocence. I mean, Damon is an abusive sex fiend, so it made sense that he would, idk, deprave Elena somehow. Well, I take it back now. Damon might represent unbashed sexuality within the narrative, but he isn't corrupting Elena... because, seriously, what's there to corrupt? It's safe to assume she lost her virginity at sixteen, at seventeen she jumped a murderous vampire's bones to persuade him to not leave her. Then she spent a year in a sexual relationship with said murderous vampire, and they:
- had sex in his house, where his vampire brother with super hearing could hear every sound;
- had sex in her house, and, apparently, were loud enough that her perfectly human aunt heard them from another room;
- had sex on a table and, as far as I recall, in her parents' bedroom (the lakehouse);
- had sex when Katherine was threatening to do some violence if they didn't break up.
Sexual self-discovery is an important part of Elena's journey. But this won't be a story of Elena temporarily transgressing into ~debauchery and then recovering morally. It will be a story of Elena discovering that what she wants matters, that her desire is valid, that she's allowed to jump Damon's bones without asking “What does it say about me?” first. There is no need to demonize Damon, because Damon's moral condition has nothing to do with Elena's desire. This isn't transgression, falling out of grace with a sexual predator. It's growth.
So, Elena Gilbert. She is sexually active, she has desires, she has sex with vampires, she cheats on her boyfriend, she wants to have fun. She won't tell you a story that associates morality with sexual conduct, she won't be your Madonna, she won't be your Whore.
Own it.